


Digging through answers

by artsyspikedhair



Series: violence and the repercussions [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abused Harry Potter, Abusive Dursley Family, Dubious Ethics, Hurt No Comfort, Internalized Victim Blaming, Obscurial Harry Potter, Severus Snape Bashing, Veritaserum, Weird Biology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-30 15:12:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17830991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyspikedhair/pseuds/artsyspikedhair
Summary: A comatose Ron Weasley. A potions master dead. A Mediwitch in search of answers.And the boy who lived, an Obscurial.Obscurials are destined for early death. How did the boy who lived become one? Will he live?(No. This is the story that ends his.)





	Digging through answers

**Author's Note:**

> Everything about magical biology is invented and probably somewhat inaccurate because I’m only in my first year of Anatomy & Physiology.  
> Also this will likely be the last fic in the series. I’m sorry.

First Madam Pomfrey had to deal with the newly awakened Ron Weasley. 

“Hello, dearie, what’s your name?” First question to ensure that the long term memory is working.

”R-r-Ronald Bilius Weasley, W-why-?”

”Do you know where you are?”

”Hogwarts? Why’s it so bright? Should- thought Hogwarts made of stone, not bright”

”You’re in the hospital wing. Do you remember who I am?”

”one of the professor people? No good with names, sirry”

”to be expected after the ordeal you went through. Do you know what time of year we’re in?”

”Halloween- the feast- Hermione! Where-?”

”shhh” Ron began hyperventilating and so the Mediwitch gave him a calming draught. Unfortunately, the draught’s effects made the redhead fall back asleep, meaning the Mediwitch could not further assess if the boy had sustained any brain damage. His ability to speak meant his vocal cords and trachea both recovered fully from being crushed by the troll, but the full scale of damage would be assessed the next time he woke. Probably with his family around.

Madam Pomfrey cast the  _vitalis somnum_ charm on Ron, which would inform her regarding what phase of sleep Ron was in as well as if any changes in his blood pressure, oxygen saturation, rate of respiration, heartbeats per minute, or temperature occurred.

And, as she was thinking of families, Madam Pomfrey remembered the Obscurial standing awkwardly behind her, listening to the conversation and watching the Mediwitch as though he had never witnessed medical treatment before, which he might not have.

”Mr. Potter-“

”I’m sorry I didn’t know what I was doing I just got mad I didn’t mean to destroy the classroom please don’t kick me out!”

"Come with me into my office," Madam Pomfrey said in what she hoped was a soothing tone. "You are not in trouble - I just want to talk."

 The two exited the main part of the hospital wing and entered the witch's small office. A chart for testing eyesight lined one of the walls, while the others had various medical illustrations drawn on them. Madam Pomfrey sat in her usual seat, near the door so she could easily rush back in case of an emergency, and watched as Harry eyed the room. He looked dismayed when he saw the distance between where he would be sitting and the door, but he seated himself in the corner of the room, choosing a large Muggle-styled recliner that shaped itself to fit him. Used to magic furniture by now, Harry showed no surprise, but he also remained as tense as he had been while standing.

"Here, have some water," Harry nodded. Madam Pomfrey already had two empty cups on the desk that now acted as a barrier between her and her student, and she was still holding the vial of veritaserum. Harry moved a cup towards himself as Poppy poured herself a cup. She then poured for Harry, stopping when he gestured for her to. Considering the main base in veritaserum is water, the mediwitch did not see her omission as at all unethical. The school had no protocol for an obscurius, and she was, by law, required to make a formal inquiry using veritaserum or compulsion charms whenever she saw evidence of familial abuse. Harry eyed her warily as she drank, then, judging the cup safe using some internal calculation she could only guess at, he drank his entire cup in one gulp.

"Thank you," the boy said quietly, and Madam Pomfrey's chest ached a bit as she observed the boy closely for the first time. He was shaking his legs beneath the table, still breathing heavily from the transition into human form. His breathing evened as she responded to the boy, asking him why he was at the hospital wing in the first place.

"safe here. Ron's here, and I wanted to check on him, but mostly I came here because I'm safe here. I think. Safer here than I was out there, anyway."

"Out there meaning...?" Madam Pomfrey led, unsure how to bring the conversation to where she was legally obligated to bring it. She hoped Harry would reveal the Obscurial's occurrence on his own. Harry took a shaky yet deep breath.

"Out there in class. Especially in Snape- Professor Snape's class because he always looked at me like he wanted me, like he hungered for my body the way - no, not the same way my aunt did but- God, Snape had sex - raped - he and my mum both ra- both made my aunt have sex with him - I don't like this I don't like thinking about this or talking about this-" The boy was going to panic again, Madam Pomfrey could sense it, so she moved her arm towards him - the boy flinched, muttering _please don't touch me_ \- and refilled his cup. She took another sip of her own. Only decades of experience occluding her emotions using the magical force binding her to her Hippocratic oath as reinforcement kept the Mediwitch from reacting to Harry's confession. Harry sipped his drink slower this time, his body calming to an almost-relaxed state. She could continue.

Veritaserum on children has the effect of verbalizing all conscious thoughts related to the question asked, not merely forcing the truth out the way it does in magically stable adults. This is because children have shakier metaphorical and magical grips on reality than adults do, so the potion accesses all the mental processes in the brain, not merely those the adult uses to obtain magical certainty. So when the witch asked "how do you know Severus had sexual relations with your aunt?" the response was somewhat incomprehensible. Harry started first unsure who Severus was before realizing Snape - and he said the name with visceral disgust in his voice - was the referent. Madam Pomfrey was able to make out the gist of the story:

The gist of it was that Snape triggered the Obscurial to defend Harry, the Obscurial had no way to defend so instead aggressively chose to feed on the Potion Master's emotions, the Obscurial then was able to Legilimize Snape as it (Harry/the Obscurial) infiltrated the central nervous system, Harry doesn't know how he knows the girl in the memories is his aunt other than that "the girl in the memory feels the same hate towards my magic that my aunt does", and Harry probably killed Snape when his magic reacted to the memory by triggering all the functions of the amygdala at once.

Madam Pomfrey felt no sorrow knowing her colleague died from an lethal amount of epinephrine, cortisol, and adrenal hormones. Severus Snape was a vile, violent man - during his tenure at Hogwarts, Madam Pomfrey has treated more potions accidents than accidents in any other class, and multiple students had confessed to her that Snape's displeasure towards them caused them to turn to self harming as tools to survive the class. The repetitive stress injuries alone she's had to treat because of Severus' chosen form of detention would have been reason enough for her to smile at his death. The only reason she hid her reaction was the duty she had to the fragile boy who killed him.

"Harry. Harry, listen to me: Severus Snape's death does not make you a murderer."

Harry's veritaserum-dosed answer made the Mediwitch laugh: "Yes it does, Madam Pomfrey. I wanted to kill him, and he died due to my actions. Willingly killing someone makes you a murderer. I don't feel guilty about it though because Professor Snape killed thousands of Muggle children during the first Wizarding War. I read about it in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts. I like my magic - I only wish it hadn't waited until Hogwarts to begin defending me."

"What did you need defending from before Hogwarts?"

"What didn't I need defending from before Hogwarts?" Harry laughed a bitter spiteful laugh that would've sounded fitting from the former Potions' Master's mouth. "My aunt, Uncle Vernon, Dudley, Dudley's friends Piers, Malcolm, Dennis, and Henry, the elements when my aunt decided I didn't deserve to go inside, starvation, being locked in my cupboard - my tongue will hurt if I list all the dangers I needed defending from before Hogwarts now."

"Why- why did you need defending from your aunt and uncle?" Here's where the source of the Obscurial is revealed, Madam Pomfrey thought.

"My uncle likes to choke me until I faint. Sometimes he does it with only one fist. Hurts to breathe after. Can't talk either, he like that. Likes shutting the freak up every once in a while. I always fight back, he hates me for that. I probably deserve the beatings for having the audacity to physically hurt my guardians, but I still have to fight back because otherwise I really think they might’ve killed me. My aunt is a lot less hands-on, or actually no, she’s just not physically abusive because violence is for her little man and her big man, my cousin and my uncle I mean. My aunt’s a lot more likely to just starve me as a punishment or lock me in my cupboard. Or, what I really wish I could defend myself from is her touching my penis in the bath but I’ve tried to reason with her with no luck, I have tried fighting but I cannot- I think some kind of magic stops me from being able to hurt her I guess. I shouldn’t want to hurt her, especially now that I know why she hates me, now that I know she was raped as s kid by my mother-“ Harry was crying, snot dripping from his face, so Madam Pomfrey conjured him some tissues.

”Harry, you’re allowed to be angry at your aunt. What she did to you - touching your body in that way - is wrong, regardless of her reasoning. You are allowed to hate them - these monsters you’ve been forced to live with. You are never going back there, Mr. Potter.”

”She didn’t just touch me, she also on Halloween every year takes me into the guest bedroom and she would make me do _it_  with her. And she watches me - she used to make me keep my cupboard door open while I dressed, and she’d just watch me with these hungry, attracted eyes, and I don’t want to be attractive - I don’t! I hate it and I hate remembering things and every time I’m in Defense class I don’t know why but I’m reminded of my aunt and having sex- being raped and touched and looked at like I’m a- a thing! I’m not even a person to her, just a thing that does chores and causes sexual pleasure and I don’t like it I don’t want it I just want to be able to be a child goddamnit!”

The Veritaserum wore off and Harry was struck by the enormity of what he had revealed. Revealed to this woman, a doctor, and “women have needs, boy,”-

One moment Madam Pomfrey was sitting across from a sobbing eleven year old boy who lived through more than most torture victims, and the next she was surrounded by dark. Her office was being consumed.

”Expecto Patronum!” A noncorporeal patronize spat out of her wand, moving the frightened mist back a bit but otherwise useless in defending the witch from the Obscurial. Okay, one more try, she thought, and shouted the first spell she could think of: “Hominem revealo!”

The mist dissipates. The Obscurial has removed the wall dividing her office from the greater hospital wing. 

‘Where there once was an Obscurial, now lay the second and third dead students of the year: Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.


End file.
